Fox News goes to war with Donald Trump after his 'disturbing' Megyn Kelly tweetstorm

The ceasefire struck between Republican
presidential candidate Donald Trump and Fox News appears to be
off.

Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes released a statement
Tuesday that blasted Trump for his "surprise and unprovoked
attack" against host Megyn Kelly, which Ailes labeled
"unacceptable" and "disturbing."

Trump sent out
a flood of tweets Monday night slamming Kelly for
her performance hosting "The Kelly File" that day.
Trump also shared tweets calling Kelly a "bimbo" and comparing
her looks to those of an older female TV host, Nancy Grace.

"I liked The Kelly File much better without" Kelly, Trump wrote.
"Perhaps she could take another eleven day unscheduled vacation!"

In his statement, Ailes demanded an apology from Trump.

"Donald Trump rarely apologizes, although in this case, he
should," he said.

Here's Ailes' full statement:

Donald Trump's surprise and unprovoked attack on Megyn Kelly
during her show last night is as unacceptable as it is
disturbing. Megyn Kelly represents the very best of American
journalism and all of us at Fox News Channel reject the crude and
irresponsible attempts to suggest otherwise. I could not be more
proud of Megyn for her professionalism and class in the face of
all of Mr. Trump’s verbal assaults. Her questioning of Mr. Trump
at the debate was tough but fair, and I fully support her as she
continues to ask the probing and challenging questions that all
presidential candidates may find difficult to answer. Donald
Trump rarely apologizes, although in this case, he should. We
have never been deterred by politicians or anyone else attacking
us for doing our job, much less allowed ourselves to be bullied
by anyone and we’re certainly not going to start now. All of our
journalists will continue to report in the fair and balanced way
that has made Fox News Channel the number one news network in the
industry.

In a series of barbs highlighted by
Mediaite and
CNN Tuesday, a number of the network's personalities
also tore into Trump for his latest salvo against
Kelly. Their attacks, CNN's Brian Stelter
wrote, carried "some of the hallmarks of a coordinated
effort."

The Trump criticism of Kelly is especially notable because many
observers — spurred by Trump — speculated that the entire
reason she was on vacation was because of him.

His feud with Kelly began when she moderated the first prime-time
Republican presidential debate August 6. Kelly asked Trump a
series of questions Trump described as unfair, including one
about derogatory comments
he has made toward women.

The developer lashed out at Kelly after the debate. On Twitter,
he
promoted another tweet calling the host a "bimbo." And
in subsequent interviews blasting her, he made a particularly
controversial comment that was widely interpreted as a
sexist reference to menstruation.

"You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood
coming out of her — wherever," Trump said of Kelly during the
debate.

I totally disagree with the FOX statement. I do not think Megyn
Kelly is a quality journalist. I think her questioning of me,
despite all of the polls saying I won the debate, was very
unfair. Hopefully in the future I will be proven wrong and she
will be able to elevate her standards to a level of
professionalism that a network such as FOX deserves.

More importantly, I am very pleased to see the latest polls from
Public Policy Polling showing me at a strong number one with 35%
in New Hampshire and the Monmouth University poll showing me,
again at number one, with 30% in South Carolina. It was also just
announced that I won the prestigious corn kernel poll at the Iowa
State Fair by a landslide.

I will be in Iowa tonight with my speech being live on CNN and
other networks. My sole focus in running for the Presidency is to
Make America Great Again!

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